Mercy forever.

Reports of needs grow across weary Eastern Seaboard

As he waits for the insurance company to assess damages, the Rev. Joel Kotila says he knows many people are dealing with far greater losses since Hurricane Irene. Still, the pastor at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Terryville, Conn., says he feels sad when he thinks of the damage to the church basement that filled with some 30 inches of water on Aug. 28.

Damage assessments continue after Irene

While many are giving thanks that Hurricane Irene packed less force than forecasters feared, LCMS leaders are learning about pockets of destruction as they check on congregations and communities along the battered Eastern Seaboard. By Tuesday (Aug. 30) morning, early reports told of LCMS congregations and households dealing mainly with flooding, fallen limbs and power [...]

Obare on East Africa famine: ‘We need to save lives’

By Kim Plummer Krull After seeing firsthand the suffering as starving Somalis pour into the Dadaab refugee camps, Dr. Walter Obare, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya (ELCK), is requesting additional financial support to meet urgent needs as the deadly famine spreads in East Africa. Obare described how some 1,500 refugees enter the [...]

Gifts help lift spirits of flood evacuees

By Kim Plummer Krull Five weeks after the sirens blasted a final evacuation warning, Amanda Mosser and coworkers at the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch are among the thousands of Minot, N.D., area residents still living in emergency shelters, campers or with friends and family. While they deal with their own flood-damaged homes, they also [...]